After GOP leaders won over important dissenters, President Donald Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson achieved a significant victory Thursday morning when the House passed his comprehensive tax and spending cuts package by a vote of 215-214.
There are still significant obstacles in the way of the legislation. After that, it will be sent to the Senate, where Republicans have indicated they intend to amend it.
The House’s effort to pass the bill was a significant test of Trump and Johnson’s power. Trump made passionate pleas to House Republicans to support the bill in an attempt to clear the path for its passage, and Republican leaders engaged in extensive negotiations over it.
Andy Harris of Maryland, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, voted in favor of the bill, while Republican Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Warren Davidson of Ohio voted against it.
Speaker Johnson can only afford a few defections with his razor-thin majority, so GOP leaders have had to carefully balance the conflicting demands of conservative hardliners and centrist members of their conference.
In addition to making virtually all of the trillions of dollars in individual income tax breaks found in the GOP’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, the legislative package contains provisions that would significantly reduce Medicaid and food stamps, two of the country’s most important safety net programs.
In an attempt to appease GOP stalwarts, House Republicans unveiled a series of amendments to the bill on Wednesday night.
Among these modifications was the acceleration of Medicaid work requirements from the beginning of 2029 to the end of 2026. Among other things, Republicans chose to phase out Biden-era energy tax credits earlier than anticipated.
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Following the president’s pitch to holdouts, GOP leaders set up a crucial vote
After Trump privately pleaded with key skeptics not to sabotage the tax and spending cuts package, House GOP leaders rushed forward with a vote on his agenda.
During a crisis for Speaker Johnson, the president had called members of a significant Republican wing to the White House: six conservatives were pledging to defy their own party leadership over spending cuts they still wanted to see in the bill.
However, as of Wednesday night, Johnson and his team of leaders seemed certain that Trump had contributed to the bill’s recovery. Trump had made a passionate plea to the entire House GOP conference the day before.
Trump sent a strong message to House Republicans on Tuesday, urging them to support his massive domestic policy bill.
According to half a dozen GOP lawmakers and senior aides, Johnson and his leadership team were much closer to delivering that bill after the president’s forceful, 90-minute speech to House Republicans, in which he alternated between encouraging and reprimanding his fellow Republicans.
The bill, which Republicans have dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” addresses a variety of policy topics and attempts to carry out many of Trump’s campaign-related pledges.
House Republicans unveiled a package of bill amendments ahead of a final floor vote, reflecting days of negotiations by GOP leaders to appease skeptics.
Along with provisions affecting Biden-era energy tax credits and Medicaid work requirements, the package of changes formalizes one of Johnson’s largest agreements this week: the so-called SALT cap. For some income groups, it would permit the deduction of up to $40,000 in state and local income taxes.
Key Republicans in California, New Jersey, and New York had initially opposed the $30,000 cap that GOP leaders had suggested.
Johnson had been meeting with different groups before the changes were announced in order to reach an agreement that would satisfy both centrist members who had been leery of some of the right-wing’s suggested changes to the tax and spending cuts bill and hardliners in the GOP who had been threatening to block it.
Speaker Johnson expressed confidence that the bill would pass the House despite the obstacles shortly after midnight on Thursday.
